IV. Legacy
There's no cycles on Titan. The suns preventing day from ever receding.
Tony only had his aching limbs to tell him he's been sitting in the same position too long, the wound on his side oozing out blood. The look on Peter's face, desperation as he begged him, his father, for the help Tony couldn't offer.
On his knees, he gathers up the ashes. Peter deserves better than this distant planet, if Tony even survives long enough to get home.
He has no ship. No supplies, and a stab wound that throbs with every breath he takes.
The blue alien, Nebula comes back, lips a hard line, black beetle eyes judging his sisyphean task. “Was he your son?”
“Yes,” Tony mummers, taking a shuddering breath, eyes burning as he tries to hold himself together except there's no point and he can't. There no next battle. No next mission to do.
They lost.
He lays down among the ashes, holding the ashes gently in his hand, against his chest.
It should have been him.
“We have to get off this planet,” Nebula states, practically. Never keeping still as she salvaged what she can from their area of battle. Evaluating his state. “The Benatar will still fly while we get to the next jump point.”
She nudges him with the point of her boot, looking down at his pale and sweat soaked face, “your wound needs to be cleaned if you want any chance of surviving.”
There's no point. What does he have left? How can he go home...it should have been him.
“Fine,” she spits, anger contorting her features, sun shining on her metallic parts, before she stops off, kicking up the dirt that forms the planets barren surface, “die. See if I care.”
Tony closes his eyes, feverish and tired to his bones. It feels like he hasn't gotten a moments rest since Afghanistan. There'd been battles and fights and the nightmares that had him up all hours of the night, furiously working on a newer, better Iron Man suit.
All for nothing.
He lets himself drift off into sleep.
It's less painful than the sharp throb radiating out from his abdomen. The heat building up under his skin, the warm dead air suffocating.
When he wakes up, screams dying in his mouth as he looks around the mausoleum of a planet, radiating the silence that followed Stark Industries bombs of the past.
It's a different part of the planet, and his wounds been bandaged. The white a stark contrast to his dirty clothes, covered in ashes and dirt and dried blood.
“I have been told I am irresistible,” he utters, unable to inject any sarcasm into his dead voice.
“I see all terrans are as delusional as Quill,” she mutters, busy making what repairs she can to the Benatar.
The morons, so called guardians of the galaxy, her family. Gone too.
They'd mentioned Thor. And some of their own.
Tony might have failed. Failed the world, failed the only pure thing he'd ever done. But that didn't mean he had to fail to only other person left here.
His work wasn't done.
Pepper might still be alive.
May deserved to know, deserved to know what had happened.
“Are the fuel cells still intact?”
“You're in no condition to make repairs. And I doubt you have any familiarity with these systems.”
Useless.
“Where will you go,” Tony asks her. Trying to get on the same page as this angry blue woman who'd had nothing but rage at the sight of her father.
“To kill Thanos.”
“He has all the stones,” Tony utters, Peter's turning to ashes emblazoned into the backs of his eyelids, “he'll kill you.”
She ignores him, using the planets thing and wonky gravity to aid her in moving the Benatar with her hands, the hum of her parts a lullaby to Tony. Lips drawn thin.
“I have-,” Steve, who hates him, who’d left him for dead in Russia. Nat. . .whoever was left, “The rest of the avengers will be looking for vengeance too. That way we might actually stand a chance.”
“Back on Terra,” she says, lips pursed in distaste, as she takes a seat next to him, ripping open a bar the color of clay, smooth and shiny.
“Yeah.”
“We’ll have to stop for resupplies.” She breaks the bar in half, offering him the big portion.
“Just tell me what needs fixing. I'm good with machines.”
There's a slight flinch, a bite of her check before her features return to their wary neutrality.
“He killed my sister.” She swallows, looking at the exposed panel, wiring half done. “She gave up the soul stone for me.”
The bar tastes like ash. And the moment feels too heavy already.
“Big mistake,” Tony quips, thinking of the wizard who'd resisted right up until Thanos has stabbed Tony, dragging out the killing blow to gloat, “big damn heroes always trying to save everyone.”
Her lips twitch up slightly in response.
*
May cries, breaking down in Peppers arms and Tony can't even comfort her, bedridden, IV stuck to his vein.
“Did-was-,” a crumpled mess of a woman who's lost everyone.
“He didn't feel a thing,” Tony lies. This burden will be his alone.
*
He holds his baby girl in a secluded cabin, far from the haunted world. Morgan Stark Potts. Far away from the world.
Tony has nothing left to give.
Lost in her baby babble, thought he swore he heard her say dad the other day. He smiles and shows her a photo of a holiday long ago. Mary, Richard. Rhodey and Pepper awkwardly on Tony's side, Peter so young in his arms.
Even at ten he'd still been Tony's baby.
“This is your brother,” he can't bring himself to say was. Because Peter may be gone, but he's not forgotten and-, he lets go, focusing on the moment. “He's a very brave kid. You'd have loved him.”
Can Morgan still be a sister when her brother’s gone?
She smiles and coos and spits all over Tony's shirt and he's not even disgusted. “Come on Morgan this is vintage,” he laughs.
It's easy to push it all away with her in his arms, waiting for Pepper to come home from work. He wakes up and everyday the memories hurt a little less.
One day, he hopes he can remember, talk about him without wanting to lay down and cry after.
*
He-he's survived. And scared. So so fucking scared. He can't lose the people he has left.
But Tony can't live with himself if he doesn't try and-
For Peter.
*
Peter and Pepper crowd around Tony. “Dad,” Peter cries, seeing the blackened arm, skin shriveled up to his neck. Tony's unfocused gold eyes, staring off into the sky. “Dad, please it's me-you've,” his voice breaks and he's clutching at his dad's chest, holding him, wishing Tony would hug him back.
“You've got a sister kiddo,” Tony utters, tired and worn out like a frayed thread.
Peter can sense Pepper behind him, her arms light on his shoulders, pulling him back, pulling him to her and clutching him in her arm, as much for his benefit and hers.
They won. That should mean-Peter just wants his dad.
“Tell me about her,” Peter prompts, smiling despite the tears, wet on his cheeks. He doesn't want to lose anyone else. He's already lost so much.
“Later,” Pepper says, trembling as she puts on a strong front, “you can rest now Tony. It's okay, I've got them. Just rest okay honey.”
Tony smiles, eyes falling shut, and his breathing evens out and Peter can sense the creeping death and his own heart hammering in his chest and he's shouting for help. He can't-dad has to be fine.
Pepper holds him down as Bruce and Strange make their way, breaking into their own private bubble on the rubble. Checking vitals, looking at each other grimly and very pointedly not looking at him.
“He's-he has to be okay,” Peter cries, “he’s Iron Man.” His hearts lodged in his throat, chest collapsing hard. It's like-god he doesn't want to lose anyone else.
Not when he just got them all back.
Pepper soothes him as best she can, rubbing his back as she holds him, “it's going to be okay honey,” her own voice wet and fragile, cracked like glass about to shatter. “It's going to be okay.”
Her tears fall on his hair.
Peter doesn't need spider senses to know she doesn't believe what she's saying. His dad’s used up all his miracles and Peter can't stop crying, can barely breathe.
Bruce and Strange take his dad away, body obscured. The compound is destroyed. They'll all have to head to the nearest hospital, nearest base to recuperated. To take stock.
He doesn't register moving, getting up and walking, Peppers grip still hard on him, trembling with every step despite the line of her shoulders, chin up. The others look on in understanding, but they just got everyone back.
They get to go home to families, to reunite.
*
Tony's in critical state and neither Pepper nor Peter can bring themselves to leave his side no matter how often Rhodey swings by. “At least go take a shower,” he tells them both.
“I’ll stay and I'm sure Morgan and May would love it if you two got lunch with them.”
That gets Pepper out for a while at least.
With so many unknowns, she's kept Morgan away for the majority of the time. There's always some machine going off and Bruce and a team of some of the best doctors in the world, an Asgardian as well, running in too fix the latest problem.
He hasn't woken up.
They don't know if he will.
The blue woman comes in, silently. It's only his senses that alert him to her presence, the slight tang in the air not found here on earth.
She looks at Tony in disapproval, as if her deep set frown and obsidian eyes could rouse him from his comatose state. Hesitation creeping up on her when she realizes he's watching her.
The woman halts, a watchful guardian at the foot of dads sick bed, face closing off, lips pursing. “He promised me vengeance.” It's a hollow statement, head tilting a degree to the side, a lifelong sadness creeping into the darks of her eyes, sadness gone rancid.
“He gave me that and more child of stark,” she finishes, a grandness to her words, weighing in his chest like a ton of bricks.
He doesn't know what to say.
Peter had held Morgan in his hands and cried. Happy. Sad. Scared. He didn't know where one ended and the other began.
She was so small. Her huge eyes trusting and loving from the first moment she'd seen him and yelled “brother,” visiting Tony without a deeper understanding of the critical condition he was in.
Morgan.
He was a big brother. Yet he'd never felt so small, so young. He'd lost his own mother when he was not much older than Morgan. Her laughter long since faded from his memories.
Peter had been too young to understand just how much he'd lost, to put into words the missing piece of his life, like reaching for a handrail to find it gone, nothing between you and a fall from the stairs.
She'd shared her snacks with him and drawn pictures of them all together in front of a square house, and he couldn't not smile at that though he felt like shit. A house of cards about to collapse no matter how much May hugged him.
She takes her leave, giving him a respectful nod, her feet silent on the linoleum floors.
*
Tony looks every year his age and maybe a dozen more hooked up to all the machines. Peggy had at least been-she'd led a full life. Had a career most could only dream of and a family that had surrounded her right up until the end.
Tony. Fuck, Tony was-had finally retired. This, this all felt like another weight on Steve’s shoulders.
“It's not your fault,” Nat says, biting into an apple. “He did what we all would've done.” Her red hair tucked into a braid, feet on the table. “I mean, we were both ready to die for the soul stone.”
Her eyes flint down to his body.
Gone is the Stark aided super soldier. The man who was frozen for seventy five years. Captain America.
He's back to regular old Steve Rogers. It feels right. Back to square one. But instead of feeling like he wishes-like he wants to take on the world with his fists, he feels settled. At home in his body after a lifetime at war.
Ready to live a little of the life he was always fighting for people to have.
Nat’s finally found the same thing. The taunt pull of her muscles, a gun cocked for firing at any second, gone. Replaced by tired smiles and open eyes. She'd fallen into planing, into leading, less a weapon than a woman trying to help.
Absolution for all she had done had snuck up on her. It was a good look for her.
Steve just hoped Bucky could find it too someday.
“I know,” he responds, looking over at the shuttered room. Stark’s kid inside. Hell, when had Tony even become a father?
Morgan was a sweetheart. Peter was all heart and a second hand embarrassing earnestness.
How had Tony raised them?
“How did Tony manage to sneak a kid without you,” Steve jokes, smiling at Nat, “the world's greatest spy, knowing?”
She snorts. “He told me after-well after Berlin. You fought him, do you remember?”
“Strong kid. Gotta lot of heart.”
She nods. “Stark invented time travel for him.”
Steve snorts, still in disbelief. It was hard to remember that there'd been a time when he thought Tony was a complete jackass. Sure, they hadn't always seen eye to eye, but it had all come from a place of wanting to do the right thing.
“Banner says if he wakes up he’ll never be the same. Had to amputate the arm last night. The brains good though.”
Steve looks down at his feet, smiling when he sees himself, the same gangly body he'd been born with. Modern medicine had come a long way and he wasn't half as feeble as he'd been back then, poor and hungry and buzzing with righteousness. “What’ll you do?”
They've all been given a second chance. Thor's given a whole speech about becoming the king the Asgardians deserved. Bucky’s alive.
She shrugs, a smile already forming on her lips, “I’m going to return the stones. Barton's offered to put me up. I'm sure the worlds still needs someone to clean up this mess.”
“Is that what you want?”
“Yeah. I think so. It was nice giving orders for once. Helping in a way that didn't involve someone dying. You?”
Steve laughs, “not sure yet. The VA’s good, but. . .I don't think that's me. I'm nowhere near as helpful as Sam.”
Nat snorts, rolling her eyes.
He glances over to the room, light always on. There were still so many recovering. Boots on the ground getting everything back in order. The talking Raccoon wearing a special leg brace while his leg heals.
The Wakandan princess Shuri running around, dispensing medicine like it was going out of style.
“You should go in there. Talk to the kid. He's dead on his feet according to his aunt and step mom.”
“Will you still be here when I get back?”
“Probably not,” she admits. “There’s still so much to do.”
“Just don't be a stranger.” And then he's up, walking into the room. Bucky hadn't wanted to come. His missions while brainwashed still a specter over his actions now.
It's insane. Barton with his family. Gone as soon as the battle was done to see them again. The last of the Asgardians ready to welcome Thor with open arms as he was ready to move on from all he’d lost.
Sam with his shield, looking at him in disbelief. Captain America could be anyone. It had never been about the man. Peggy and Howard could've chosen anyone. But they'd wanted a good person, and there was no one better than Sam.
And now this. Steve had fought Tony's son. The same son he'd lost on a planet far far away. It was a loss Steve couldn't imagine.
He hoped Tony would pull through. He’d always been a tough son of a bitch.
He hopes they can talk about everything. Mend their relationship. Without the weight of the world on their shoulders pulling them in different directions, convictions set, they could be friends like they once almost were.
Before the accords.
Before Tony walked away from the world for five years. Who could blame him.
“Hey kid,” he says, walking in to see the grim faced teenager. Bags under his eyes and curled up in the couch by Tony's side. “How are you holding up?”
“Like shit. I mean-bad captain america sir mr rogers.”
“Steves fine.”
Peter nods, his eyes flicking back and forth between him and Tony's body, worse than he had been when Nebula has carried him down from the ship.
“I-we never got to talk like I wanted us too. Things got so bad between us after Germany. And-,” Steve sighs, remembering the crushing emptiness of the world these last few years. “And then we never really talked after. I should've reached out. We were friends. I still think of him as my friend. As family.”
Tony had laid his life on the wire so often when they'd fought together. Steve had grown fond even of the other man's most annoying mannerisms, his pechance for poking things with a stick to see what they were made of. His stubbornness much like his own.
“I'm sorry we never got a chance to meet before, properly.”
Peter’s red rimmed eyes shine in the glaring hospital lights. The beginnings of a lego toy on a seat, drawings put up by Morgan. An arc reactor on a table, reading “proof tony stark has a heart.”
“I'm sorry too Mr Rogers Sir. After we fought, they showed a video of you in detention. And then-I met Dr Banner after New York but you'd left to go work. I always thought you were cool when I learned about you in history.” He wipes the tears with the back of his hand. “We got to watch a really bad action movie they made of you in the 80s.”
Steve smiles. Tony had made him watch it once. He'd come down to D.C. for some congressional meetings to do with the cleanup after New York. “You put up a good fight kid.”
“Thanks. Dad said you could've taken me if you wanted to.”
It sounds like something Tony would say. They'd all been holding back that day. Hoping the other side would back down.
“I knew your grandfather. Crazy guy. Just like Tony too. Drink in hand, unable to help their sarcastic commentary, smartest man on the room. I can't speak for who he became, but he really wanted to make a better world.”
“Dad, he told me to be better than him. And I know he isn't perfect. I mean, just look at Ultron but he's my dad and-,” Peter breaks, head in his hands.
“He’s going to pull through kid. We're talking about the man who built a iron suit while in some cave, who fought thanos and won. He invented time travel just to get you back.”
Peter tries to smiles, looking up at Steve, “He forgave you. Never said it, but he missed you.”
Steve takes in Peter. His rumpled clothes a good week old, tired eyes, the future of the Avengers. A boy of fifteen, already battle worn.
“And I’ll get to tease him about it, just as I know he’s going to make fun of me being shorter than him now.”
Peter smiles.
And it feels better than any victory Captain America ever got.
*
Tony opens his eyes to a room full of family. May Parker laughing quietly as Happy talks. Pepper surrounded by paperwork, hair pulled back and out of her face, pausing for a bit of pasta.
Rhodey right next to her, remote control in hand as he looks for the cartoons Morgan likes to watch, it's all about Ducktales right now. Calling over to May and Happy, asking if that was before he met Tony and he still knew what peace was.
Even Pepper cracks a smile at that.
And his two kids, sitting on a thick blanket on the linoleum floor. The skeleton of the disney lego castle as Peter asks Morgan if she's watched Star wars yet.
Her tiny head shaking as she pushes a piece into place.
For the first time in a decade, doesn't feel the need to call an Iron Man suit, build a better version.
He takes it in and smiles.